vivo X70 Pro+ review

Design, build quality, handling

We'll kick off with our main pain point about the X70 Pro+ - it's no longer the reasonably-sized high-end cameraphone that the X60 Pro+ was. The increase in screen diagonal and battery capacity have pushed the new model in 'mainstream' flagship category and out of the perceived 'compact' territory we had that one in.

X70 Pro+ (left) next to X60 Pro+

That's some arbitrary division, of course, as the new model measures 6mm taller, less than 2mm wider and is, in fact, 0.2mm thinner. But the X60 Pro+ was already barely compact, and it was mostly the ratio of cameras/size that made it seem like it was easier on your pocket. Well, the X70 Pro+ is a full-sized offering, but the good news is that there's the X70 Pro non-plus if you value pocketability more than the advancements the plus brings.

X70 Pro+ (right) next to X70 Pro

And there's a bunch of those. For one, the X70 Pro+ now comes with an IP68 rating that promises water resistance for up to 30 minutes under 1.5m of water. That's a first for a vivo, even a high-end one, and as a feature, it's long overdue, if you ask us.

The others aren't so much related to the design and build, but the design has changed nonetheless. A quad-camera configuration was never going to be discreet, so vivo has instead embraced it and made it look even larger by placing it inside a mirror-like squarish box spanning most of the phone's top half - it's this square that you see when you open the retail box.

Alongside the outlined Pro+ logo, you also get a vivo and a Zeiss badge in the middle of the black mirror. Another Zeiss logo, the proper blue one, keeps the lenses company inside the camera island, and there's a red T* to remind you of the German optical glass specialists' coatings on the lens elements.

A third mention of Zeiss is printed in the satin-finished vertical strip at the right of the camera cluster, where it leads in the combined lens characteristics of the four modules.

The reflective bit can very well serve as a mirror for rough framing of rear-camera selfies. That's a small upside to the otherwise questionable choice of material and finish - the glossy surface will happily pick up fingerprints and advertise them to whoever bothers looking.

You can't say the same about the fine satin finish of the rest of the back - that one is antireflective and is virtually immune to prints, which is great. Less so is the fact that it provides little grip, and you'll best do some NDT-style training when you first pick up your X70 Pro+, or use a case - the bundled one works great and looks nice too.

Mind you, we're talking about the black version of the phone with its glass back. These findings won't apply to the blue and orange ones with their vegan leather rear panels - those will very likely be worlds-apart grippier. That's the same finish you get on the outside of the included case of the black one, by the way, and a throwback to the X60 Pro+'s rear panel.

As a side note to that side note, we're not entirely sure the phone will even be offered outside of China in these other two colors that we've seen in the press photos - vivo's Indian site only lists the Enigma Black.

The frame of the X70 Pro+ is aluminum and is treated to a similar finish as the back. There's the occasional antenna line splitting it as well as a whole glossy plastic inlet up top with 'Professional photography' printed on it - thankfully, you rarely see this single tacky bit of the phone's design.

Oh, and since we're here, let's mention another welcome addition to the X70 Pro+'s feature set - the IR emitter.

The X70 Pro+ has the usual mechanical controls - a power button and a volume rocker. The two are placed in a slightly indented portion of the frame, on the right of the phone. The power button sits just above the midpoint, and the volume rocker is above it. Everything clicks nicely.

On the bottom, you'll find the USB-C port, the dual nanoSIM card slot, the primary microphone, and the primary speaker.

Buttons on the right • Bottom stuff on the bottom • Two nano SIMs can go inside, back to back

Yes, there's a secondary speaker, on a vivo - they couldn't have gotten away without stereo speakers on a phone this expensive, not anymore. Firing from a thin slit above the display and directed forward, the speaker also serves as an earpiece (though you could look at it the other way around).

The small punch-hole for the selfie camera barely spoils the looks of the gorgeous 6.78-inch OLED. The nicely slim bezels and the curved sides make for a very premium look, and the panel underneath the (unnamed, hmm) glass is properly great too, but more on that on the next page.

The X70 Pro+ features an under-display fingerprint sensor of the optical variety. It's fast and accurate and all that, but it could have been placed a little higher, particularly on a phone this tall. As is, it's a bit too low for our liking.

The X70 Pro+ measures 164.5x75.2x8.9mm and weighs 213g in this glass-backed black version. It's larger and heavier than the OnePlus 9 Pro, but not quite as heavy as the Galaxy S21 Ultra or Mi 11 Ultra. It's still a proper full-sized flagship phone with no aspirations for passing as compact. As long as you don't expect it to be a follow-up to the X60 Pro+, however, and take it in the context of other top-level phones, you could call it reasonably sized.